Rediscovering Founders Memorial Park

Residents Invited To Workshop Tonight To Help Town Develop Plans For Area Overlooking Connecticut River

September 27, 2005|By CLAUDIA VAN NES; Courant Staff Writer

OLD SAYBROOK — Barbara Guenther first heard of Founders Memorial Park several years ago, when she was the new chairwoman of the parks and recreation commission.

She was reviewing properties overseen by the commission with department Director Vicky Duffy. Guenther, an outdoors enthusiast who thought she knew which park was which in town, remembers saying, ``Where's that?''

She found it at the top of a hill made of garbage.

She was not discouraged by the location, however. Tonight she will help conduct a ``visioning'' workshop so residents can discuss how they'd like to see that hill and surrounding area become more than a park in name only.

It's hard to imagine 21 acres overlooking the Connecticut River more underutilized than Founders Memorial Park, especially since its location at the end of Coulter Street is so near downtown.

Its history is the problem. The town landfill created the steep hill of garbage, and though long since shut down, the mountain of covered trash remained a dilemma. The land, with its spectacular views over the river, has been used only as a leaf dump for years -- the assumption being that transforming the site into a park would be an expensive nightmare of red tape.

However, the Founders Park Ad Hoc Committee, headed by Guenther, has recently learned that the state Department of Environmental Protection is a backer of the park concept, and not much has to be done to make the switch.

The future park will include more than the former landfill, Guenther explained on a recent visit to the area. A dozen years ago the Clarke family gave the town a 4-acre spit of land at the foot of the hill extending into North Cove.

Then resident David Peckham bought a former factory site on the west side of the end of Coulter Street, across from a salt marsh owned by the town. The marsh is just south of the Clarke land.

Peckham turned his property into a collection of high-end condominiums and gained town permission to cut down the phragmite across from his development, affording an expanded view of the river.

Peckham's deal also required that he install a sidewalk along the development and set aside a small parking area for the future park -- which, Guenther pointed out, he will light at night.

A town easement over a strip of Peckham's land above the parking area could be a walking trail with possible connection to River Street.

In the meantime, Guenther indicated with a sweep of her arm, there could be a trail around the circumference of the park. Her committee doesn't envision more than a few such trails, a couple of benches, some of the scrubby trees removed to open up the view from the top of the former landfill and a grassy area. The mounds of decaying leaves would be moved elsewhere.

But Guenther cautioned these are only the committee's preliminary thoughts and members are anxious to hear from townspeople tonight about how they'd like the area developed.

One resident who has a definite opinion to share is Ed Banas.

``A park here is the best thing that could happen to this town,'' said Banas, who lives on Coulter Street. He's one of a small minority of residents who has discovered the view from the top of the landfill hill and now walks there regularly with his dog.